Montaigne Society Cambridge Trip

Chris explains how learning happens at Cambridge

An excellent trip to Cambridge yesterday. The Montaigne Society visited St Catherine's College where Chris (the School's Liaison Officer) introduced them to what learning was like at the university, both through an informative presentation and also getting a Ph.D Theology student to give a sample lecture. There was also a trip to the very impressive Fitzwilliam Museum which has amazing collections of all kinds of things to ignite curiosity.

Whilst any applications might be a few years off, it is clear that many of the students managed to see a glimpse of where there learning could ultimately take them, and hopefully makes the key messages we are trying to impart at Oakham, resonate to an even greater extent.

George Smith (Clipsham) followed this with an excellent presentation today in the Society's weekly gathering. He chose his genuine academic passion of palaeontology and did a fantastic job at introducing us to both his own journey; how he became so engaged in this area of study; and also theories about whether Jurassic Park would be at all possible and whether the Loch Ness Monster could exist. Along the way, we certainly got to share in his immense enthusiasm for the topic and it was abundantly clear that extensive research and critical thinking were both key foundations to the success of the talk.

A variety of teaching and learning news...

A bit of an update of various exciting things for today's post.

1. Four 7th Formers did an AMAZING presentation to the 1st Form about "what I wish I would have known about learning when I was in 1st Form?" Ella Brahmachari, Erol Guvenor, Bea Wignall and Kiera Thomas all promoted taking responsibility, fully engaging, looking out for the subjects you enjoy to push further, and also persevering with the ones that you find difficult. Speaking with some of the 1st Form afterwards, they got so much from listening to the older students and it is definitely more convincing to hear those messages from Oakhamians who have been through the same journey that they are embarking upon, rather than from me all of the time.

2. The Montaigne Society continues apace. Patrick Holmes and Xavier Thomason did a fantastic presentation today on how computer games fulfil human psychological need. They demonstrated this through showing particular games and how they are attractive due to them catering for - for example - our longing for relatedness, autonomy and competence. Again, quite an amazing level of thinking for this age group. Personally I am excited by the research two 5th Form girls are carrying out into religious symbolism in Philip Pullman and C.S. Lewis, but then I would be!

3. Hopefully our 7th Form are picking up on the new initiative of "Student Impact Reports". These are a handy way to compile the key targets and practical steps to achieve these in order to make maximum progress. In a teaching and learning sense, this is excellent practice as it focuses the mind on the few aspects that will have (as the name suggest) maximum impact.

4. Just last week, Sue Brindley came for a second visit from Cambridge and met up with some of our CamStar teachers. She is a wealth of knowledge and speaking about teaching with her for just ten minutes gives a whole array of ideas about not only teaching itself, but how to evaluate its success properly.

And plenty more as well - there is certainly no such thing as a "slow term" at Oakham.

Doing it for themselves...

Such a brilliant lesson with 1st Form today! We have been introducing the year group to "FOSIL", which is Oakham School's framework for guiding student's independent research. Today I saw the first fruits and the start of something really special. Basically, FOSIL breaks up the research process from the initial point of connecting with a topic or question by thinking about what is already known, then wondering and raising smaller questions that will guide the research process. This is then followed by investigating using different resources and at that point reaching a logical conclusion based on this research. This is then followed by presenting the research and conclusion (whether through essays or presentations) and finally a reflection on how it has all gone, and where you could go to next. When we talk about LHO (Learning Habits at Oakham) this is it in its purest form. It both teaches students the skills they need and then expects them to practise them until they will become second nature.

I am quite determined that these students will all be able to meaningfully investigate information and critically think about it so that when they do reach exam-age (and beyond), they will not want to be spoon-fed answers, but will have been encouraged to take themselves seriously as a learner and have automatically high expectations of the leading part that they should have in their learning.

I have been trying it out recently with the lovely 1G, looking at the question: "Is following the Eightfold Path (Buddhism) the best way to live your life?". We have worked through the stages and the students have wowed me with their ability to think up interesting questions and intelligently pursue answers through using both print and Internet resources.

Initially some had the habitual "rush to the powerpoint", but after some talking through and guiding from me, I am seeing far more noting and discussion of information prior to actually jumping to an uninformed conclusion, sadly something seen too much in most schools, and in society. These students, through really applying themselves and living up to the high expectations of taking a lead in their own learning are developing crucial tools to not only achieve excellent academic grades, but more importantly (in my view) be able to follow their interests and become genuinely knowledgable about whatever they choose to investigate. What a great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon!

Is it just a gimmick?

...on Friday, I find out.

Let me explain. I am fascinated with the interplay between "traditional" (often a word for tried and tested - sometimes a word for the woefully unexamined) and "progressive" classroom practice. I mostly argue that these are falsely dichotomised and actually, we should just do what works (according to your aims and objectives as a teacher and as a school). When thinking of what is often called "progressive" teaching practice, I am always careful to try and spot a gimmick, over something that can genuinely enhance learning.

And yet, such a seemingly gimmicky thing came to my mind when I was planning out a lesson looking at Plato's suggested virtues of a philosopher. Last year, I taught the section in the default style for a philosophy classroom (and rightly so) which is through socratic dialogue with my class. They read in advance, were hit with some written questions at the beginning of the lesson to gauge their understanding - which was good - and then we explored the concepts and delved deeper through discussion. Normally works. It didn't. I believe that unless something has reached the long-term memory, it may have once been understood, but not learnt, and as the term went by I kept asking questions, assuming a detailed knowledge of the virtues, but it became apparent that they had simply not gone in. The teaching (and the learning) had failed.

This year I have my class in a Biology lab, which is interesting for us seeking wisdom in abstraction. But it is also very good, because this wonderful room has a skeleton in it. In one of those "mad idea" moments I decided that rather than teach this in the same way (admittedly to different students) they were going to identify the virtues from the text, select a relevant quotation, and then come up with a critical point about it (why it is/is not necessary for a ruler to have this quality... or something). Then these were put on various coloured card and conceptually linked to a part of anatomy and stuck there. The attempt was to get them to process the ideas more thoroughly and in different ways, in a simple attempt to make them more memorable. I have no truck whatsoever with "learning styles" - we all learn different things in different ways and are not exclusively "visual" etc... but perhaps the blend of Sharpie pens, a 3D skeleton and a bit of movement might raise this apparently forgettable piece of the text up the cognitive retention priority.

The initial signs have been good, and I brought the virtues into a subsequent lesson, and I was impressed with the clarity and speed with which the class appeared to remember them. The real test is Friday, where without any priming, after a significant break, I will start by asking them to remind me of the key virtues of the skeleton/philosopher ruler. If they initially forget, think of the anatomy and trace back the links they previously made... we'll see.